Articles

Expedition Will Seek to Find Noah's Ark

An expedition is being planned for this summer to the upper reaches of Turkey's Mount Ararat where organizers hope to prove an object nestled amid the snow and ice is Noah's Ark.

joint U.S.-Turkish team of 10 explorers plans to make the arduous trek up Turkey's tallest mountain, at 17,820 feet, from July 15 to August 15, subject to the approval of the Turkish government, said Daniel P. McGivern, president of Shamrock-The Trinity Corporation of Honolulu, Hawaii. The goal: to enter what they believe to be a mammoth structure some 45 feet high, 75 feet wide and up to 450 feet long that was exposed in part by last summer's heat wave in Europe. "We are not excavating it. We are not taking any artifacts. We're going to photograph it and, God willing, you're all going to see it," McGivern said. Explorers have long searched for an ark on the high slopes of Mount Ararat, where the biblical account of the Great Flood places it. In 1957, Turkish air force pilots spotted a boat-shaped formation in Agri province. The government did not pursue the sighting, however. The entire area, including Mount Ararat, was off limits to foreigners because of Soviet complaints that explorers were U.S. spies. That ban was lifted in 1982, and since then teams of explorers have visited the area but have been unable to substantiate any claim of an ark. McGivern and Ahmet Ali Arslan, a Turkish mountain climber who grew up in a town near Mount Ararat, say satellite photos have helped them pinpoint a more exact location. Arslan will be leading the expedition. The biblical account in the Book of Genesis says that after the great deluge, the ark came to rest on the mountain with Noah's family and a cargo of male and female pairs of every kind of animal.Geologists say even though there is evidence of a flood in Mesopotamia in Sumerian times, it is not possible for a ship to make landfall at an altitude as high as Mount Ararat.

2nd Article: The Ark they saw? Team Mounts Hunt

By ALISON GENDAR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Satellite imagery of Turkey's Mount Ararat highlights an object within a red circle, with blue arrows indicating possible downslope movement. The imagery was captured by Digital Globe and made available through Shamrock-The Trinity Corp. Explorers hope to determine whether the object is linked to the story of Noah's Ark.

Explorers hope to uncover clues this summer to one of the oldest biblical mysteries, the location of Noah's Ark. A joint U.S.-Turkish team believes it has satellite photos of the frozen remains of the Ark buried in the ice and snow of Mount Ararat, Turkey's tallest mountain. "I do hope to bring people to faith in God, but this is a nonreligious, scientific expedition to prove that Noah's Ark really exists on the top of that mountain," said Daniel McGivern, president of Shamrock - The Trinity Corporation of Honolulu. Biblical accounts of the Great Flood said Noah's Ark - packed with two of every living creature - came to rest on Mount Ararat. The first pictures of the site, taken by the U.S. Air Force in 1949, revealed what seemed to be a boat-shaped structure covered by ice. In 1997, the government released several of these images, but experts deemed them inconclusive. But the 2003 heat wave - the hottest European summer since 1500 - melted massive amounts of snow on Mount Ararat and provided the chance to take clearer pictures. Trinity Corporation commissioned the latest round of satellite photos. The photos show what they believe to be a mammoth structure some 45 feet high, 75 feet wide and up to 450 feet long. "We are not excavating it. We are not taking any artifacts. We're going to photograph it and, God willing, you're all going to see it," McGivern said. Farouk El-Baz, who heads the prestigious Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, is not so sure. While he has not seen the latest photos, he reviewed reams of earlier shots and concluded the boat outlines were shadows caused by rock ledges. Originally published on April 27, 2004

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